Monthly Archives: November 2011

This week we start with the box office.
As you know the preproduction work has started on the new Trek movie, with or without lens flare. But do you know how well each movie did? Well allow me to enlighten you.

So with the exception of Nemesis they all made a nice profit. Obviously Nemesis suffered from having a director that knew nothing about the show,the cast , the well established crew canon and so on. But it all dispels the myth that a lot of films bombed.

now the US centennial of flight website has a great article on the cultural impact of Star Trek and it’s influences on so many aspects of life. But there is a paragraph I would like to include.

Many people in scientific and engineering fields have stated that they were inspired by Star Trek, which they thought portrayed science and engineering in a positive light (although rarely accurately). Even physicist Stephen Hawking was a fan of the show. Although the original Star Trek series was occasionally sexist (women wore skimpy outfits and no woman was ever shown commanding a starship), many women have testified that they were positively influenced by the show’s depiction of women scientists working alongside their male counterparts. Actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg has said that seeing a black woman sitting on the bridge of a starship, and not working as a maid, made her believe as a young girl that she could be an actress with a real role. Mae Jamison, the first African-American woman to fly in space, has also said that she was deeply influenced by the show. Goldberg later played a regular on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Jamison made a cameo appearance on the show. Star Trek’s influence on numerous people was chronicled in a light-hearted documentary, Trekkies.

Popular phrases from the original series such as “Beam me up, Scotty,” have entered broad popular use, usually in some kind of comedic or ironic context. Star Trek has clearly influenced many diverse aspects of human behavior.

If you think about how many modern sci if shows we now have because of trek, plus how many times you have seen Star trek used in comedy sketches it’s phenomenal . Plus of course let’s not forget the miriade of podcasts there are as well as we sites, games and so on. In fact never mind six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. You could probably link Star trek to many things in a lot less.

Now Sfx.com
Has a poll on the 25 most iconic sci fi people, not just characters but people as well.
Captain Kirk is at number 17, which in my humble view is very low.
Spock however is number 8 that’s a Huge difference between the two, I’m guessing you have to factor in the Jj effect on these two characters, plus the fact that a lot if people find Spocks complicated nature, well fascinating pun intended.
Number one as I’m sure you want to know was Matt Reynolds from firefly. Really! Over Kirk,Vader,Spock and do on I cannot agree. Not to mention the fact no other Star trek character was in the list,no Picard,no Borg nothing. This is a flawed list. I’m sure even the brownshirts will agree that Picard at the very least should be in the top 25 somewhere !

That said Sfx.com do have a cool competition.
Win a trip to the official 2012 Star Trek Convention
sfx at 12:26pm October 27 2011 Comments 1
Fancy a trip to the USA next May, and a copy of the fab Star Trek Vault book? Course you do. Here’s a competition

The Star Trek Convention is taking place next May 2012 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey (near Philadelphia) and we are giving away a five-day trip for you and a fellow Trekker.

The grand prize winner will also get a copy of Star Trek Vault, a must for any Star Trek fan. Five runner-ups will also each get a copy of the book.

For more details and to be in with a chance of flying to the States and attending the convention, visit SFX‘s Star Trek Vault compo page. Terms and conditions are all listed there.

Well first of all I would like to think three other podcasts for plugging me on there own shows and websites.
Firstly Treknologic the weekly Trek show that we covered in a previous cast. There support from day one has been a god send, from both them and the forum members. Jeff has been especially generous with his time and help. they also allow metro plugin on there website forums.
Second The scifi diner podcast.
Scott and miles have been great friends and they have given tremendous support and plugged this cast on there show. Scott has also tweeted me some help.
Third
The red shirt army podcast
This wonderful group of people have posted and spread the word on there podcast and website. Thanks guys.
Finally two individual Xander and Rick Moyer , Xander from the holo suite website and trek radio and Rick Moyer from the take him with you cast have been given encouragement . I thank you .
You know it’s wonderful how the Internet can bring all these people into my life and how great podcasters are at helping each other, you would not get radio stations doing that .

Now to housekeeping I was hoping to have a new mic for this show, but life got in the way, bills to be precise. So I ask your indulgence for a few more weeks and hopefully it I’ll be sorted then.

Now let’s get to the news.

Stsr trek online to start.

On or between the 16th – 19th of november two new ships are due to land on ne main server. The Exeter and Puyjaq Ships , these are (C-Store) items and they join the Gladius and Bellerophon Ships already released this month.
Star trek online had been releasing a steady stream of new ships into the c store, in anticipation of the free to play people opting to buy them when the game eventually goes free to play on January the 17th 2012. Which means you will have a few months to play before the world ends.
Speaking of which STO has also released the dilithium exchange onto there test server or Tribble.
The way this works is you need dilithium to craft and buy gear for your away team and ship. Weapons armour engine and so on, no waiting till Tuesday with this nugget.
You need to get about 11,000 dilithium to buy a console or item. But at the moment you can only earn 8000 a day. So if you do not have the timeor the inclination you can go to the dilithium exchange and buy it. You will be buying it off players who havea lot more timeor there hands and so can grind 8000 a day. The problem is the price Is set by the buyer. You see how much your prepared to pay and the seller either excepts your offer or not.
This is the system perfect world uses in China. The result is if you time rich but catch pour, you do the leg work . While someone who is time poor but cash rich comes in slaps down some money and buys what they need with little or no effort.
Will this eastern premise work in the west, I guess time will tell.
Another item to hit the test Server is the latest Borg invasion. This Is set on the planet of the Deferi and it looks awesome!. Now I don’t have a high end computer and it looked great to me. I can only imagine what the Borg spire, Klingon bird of prey (. Which sits on a hill top) and the surrounding complex look like.
so to read the company blurb. Continue reading →

Rumor of the Day: from Variety.com . J. J. Abrams has found his mystery Trek villain

Has Benicio Del Toro moved from being a wolfman to an intergalactic threat? Director J. J. Abrams may have his eye on the Oscar-winning actor to play the new bad guy in his highly anticipated Star Trek sequel.

Sources close to Star Trek claim that Abrams has met with Del Toro and is interested in offering him the villain role. But supposedly, the actor doesn’t know the character’s name or how he’ll fit into the story. It sounds as if the meeting was on a need-to-know basis.

Who could the villain be? The most wanted baddie mentioned is Khan, played famously by the late Ricardo Montalbán. If that is the case, Del Toro has a tough act to follow. Talk about pressure! At the moment, Del Toro’s casting is regarded as a rumor. Neither him or Abrams have confirmed this story.

But if the casting’s true, and he’s chosen to play the new thorn in Kirk’s side, we’re all for it! Del Toro is extremely talented and he knows how to bring intensity to a role.

Con reflections
the Star Trek: Enterprise series finale, aired in May of 2005. Next Generation’s Jonathan Frakes, who memorably guest-starred in the episode, goes so far as calling ”These Are the Voyages” “an unpleasant memory.”

The actor-director, who played Cmdr. William T. Riker on seven seasons of Star Trek: Tng, as well as a handful of appearances on Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine and that Enterprise finale, was in attendance at this year’s Central Canada Comic-Con in Winnipeg, where Star Trek’s 45th anniversary was celebrated.

During a Q&A with the audience, the man who made Star Trek: First Contact one of the best Star Trek films of the series items asked about the Enterprise finale.

If you guys remember, it’s the one where the episode actually takes place on the Enterprise-D’s holodeck, where Riker, who needs to make a difficult personal decision, observes the final mission of the original Enterprise (the NX-01) under the command of Capt. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) by playing—among others—the never-before-seen Chef. It also guest-starred Marina Sirtis, back in her role as Counsellor Deanna Troi, and the voice of Brent Spiner as Data.

This is Frakes said:

“Do you want to know the truth about that whole Enterprise thing as the show was called? Rick Berman, executive producer of all things Star Trek, called Marina and myself and said ‘we’d like you to do the last episode of Enterprise’ … They said it would be a Valentine to the fans, but all of it ended up doing I think was hurting Scott Bakula’s feelings. He was such a gentleman about it and I said to Scott this is weird for me to be on your show and your show is being taken off before it should be taken off and he was such a gentleman about it and said “no, glad you’re here” so it was awkward on all accounts, except with working with Marina again which is always lovely. But I wasn’t crazy about it. And it was so thinly connected, I thought too. Thanks for bringing up such an unpleasant memory”

So there you go, Jonathan does not have good memories of that particular gig. Continue reading →

this podcast will feature Star Trek news from a variety of sources, with comments and views on them.Hopefully every now and then someone will pop in for an interview and if an image relates to a show item i will post it on here.

In the meantime if you have a suggestion or an item for the cast,or want to be in the cast as an interview.Drop me a line at treknewsandviews@gmail.com